A potential house buyer at a real estate promotion event in Beijing.[Photo / Provided to China Daily]

With the price of housing growing respectively by 14 and 12 percent per year Shanghai and Beijing rank 7th and 8th among the world’s top 10 cities for price growth, according to CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate broker.

Policies such as interest rate cuts and lower down payments for first-time buyers are believed to have stimulated purchasing demand in Beijing and Shanghai, although the average price in the rest of Chinese cities in fell three percent year on year.

The big increase in transaction volume of residential property in Shanghai and Beijing began in March when the central bank said second home buyers who have paid off their first home loans can be viewed as first-time buyers and qualify for a minimum down payment of 30 percent.

Home sales in Shanghai rose with the average price reaching $362,900, nearly $5,000 less than the price in Beijing.

Big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are popular among job-seekers and businessmen, who contribute greatly to the housing price boom.

"Property developers and investors are more prone to invest in projects and land in first-tier cities, which have more appealing job opportunities due to the enterprises' expansion," said Chen Zhongwei, China head of the CBRE's research department.

Hong Kong, one of the only two other Asian cities in the top 10 has an average annual growth of 20 percent, just 1.6 percent lower than Irish capital Dublin, which tops the list.